"Excuse me, Captain," EDI appeared next to Shepard's personal console on the smaller desk.
"Yes, EDI..." She groaned.
Her face was in her hands propped up on her elbows. After Nihlus had left earlier that day, she'd kicked Garrus out too. She needed time alone. Lots of time alone. It wasn't as though she had never thought of this eventuality, but she had considered it highly unlikely to ever occur. Therefore, any conclusive thoughts on what she would do when the event actualized had never formed a complete consensus. That lack of faith in Cerberus had blown up in her face that day. She was not in the best of moods.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Officers Kryik and Vakarian are having a heated discussion in the hanger bay. I thought you would want to be informed."
"Yeah, can you do somethin' about that before they tear up my ship?" Joker added.
"Gah!" Shepard threw up her hands in aggravation. "Yes, fine. As if there aren't enough problems already."
She stormed off toward the elevator. The doors hissed shut and the car stared down the shaft. If they didn't kill each other, damn it all, she might just kill them both herself. She stopped off at the armory. Jacob looked up excitedly from his console. He was still calibrating a weapon, but he was also watching streaming vid from the hanger bay security camera's. She caught a glimpse of the 'heated discussion'. They didn't look like they were doing a whole lot of talking. She knew full well this sort of behavior was allowed on turian ships and it was part of their culture, but this was not a turian ship.
"Captain, did you hear about the fight down in the hanger bay?" Jacob asked as she examined several guns.
She didn't answer him and went strait for the specialized guns table.
"Captain? Captain what are you doing?"
Shepard selected the M-622 Avalanche and walked out. For the rest of the ride down her anger built up inside of her like a fire in a furnace. The doors hissed open and she entered the hanger bay that echoed with the sounds of struggle. Garrus's face was ferocious, while Nihlus' could have been carved from the hardest metal in exitance. Both of them had bloody wounds from scratches and bites wearing nothing but traditional sparing robes which were little more than loin cloths. She watched for a few moments while the two of them proceeded to beat each other senseless. She had to admit she was curious to see who would win, but when there was a little more than just blood on the floor as faces were smashed together in a grapple that would likely end up ripping someone's mandible off she decided that was the end of it. She stepped into the 'ring' marked by blood splatter. It may as well have been a varren pit. It was something one simply shouldn't do.
"Are you two done beating the holy fucking hell out of each other?" She called to them. Her voice carried and reverberated off the walls.
"Sonya, get back to the upper decks." Nihlus ordered.
"Get outta here!" Garrus shouted at her.
The two of them growled and glared at the other. Nihlus attempted a throat punch and Garrus countered and dropped him with a leg sweep. Nihlus promptly sunk his teeth into Garrus' ankle.
"Guess that's a 'no'." She mumbled.
She fired the gun and froze both of them solid. They would be released from the ice in a few hours under a heat lamp, but until then they had time to 'cool off'.
Garrus and Nihlus sat shivering on the sofa in her cabin wrapped up in thermal blankets and drinking a weak, hot tea. Sonya stood across from the, the low table and floating orb between them. Her arms were crossed and her face was glowering down at them.
"So, either of you two want to tell me why you were beating the piss out of each other?" She asked.
"It was just a sparring match, Sonya." Garrus defended.
"Really. It didn't look like one. It looked like you were trying to kill each other. And don't tell me you weren't."
Garrus opened his mouth again, but she cut him off before the sound to power the words left his throat.
"And don't you dare tell me it's over who's going to be my bond mate, cause I'll drop both of you out the nearest air lock and not look back. We've already discussed the issue. Nihlus has released his claim so there's no more need to fight about it. I just need some time. You can deal with that or you can't, but I'll not have this disrupting my ship more than it already has. Do you understand?" She shouted. She wiped away the tears flowing down her cheeks with the heel of her hand.
"I'm sorry, Sonya." Garrus muttered and lowered his gaze to the floor.
"Stop apologizing! I want no apologies or excuses. Both of you, go be friends. Hell, be enemies, I don't care! You were friends before this and if you let it come between you then maybe neither of you are the men I thought you were. Now get out!"
"But Sonya..." Garrus started.
"GET OUT!" She screamed and pointed wrathfully at the door.
Nihlus left without a word of protest or otherwise. Garrus continued to sit stubbornly, shivering on the sofa.
"Garrus!" Sonya warned.
"No." He said calmly, stealing his gaze on her. "I'm not leaving. You can beat me, shoot me, fucking freeze my ass again, but I'm not leaving this room."
He sipped his tea as if to punctuate his point. Sonya glared at him, but she wasn't going to force him to leave. It was his cabin too since they were bonded. She sighed heavily and relaxed her fists. Rounding the table she flopped down on the adjoining sofa.
"I'm so..." Garrus cut himself off and tried to change the sentence mid word. "..ooo hungry!"
He shook his head at his own critical failure. Sonya peeked at him from under heavy lids to raise a brow at him.
"You know where the mess hall is. Go for it, ice boy." She teased.
"That's not funny." Garrus grumbled.
Sonya smirked.
"You know this is killing me, right?" Sonya told him.
"I know. What do you want me to do about it?" Garrus shrugged.
"Nothing." She replied. "But you will have to be patient. I may not be feeling like... mating for a while." She sighed.
Garrus clung to his blanket and shuffled over to sit next to her. He sat the tea down on the low table and stroked a hand down her throat as she rested her head against the wall.
"This isn't about the sex." He told her. "If it was, human would not be my first choice."
He grinned a little when she smirked as his comment.
"I'll be here if you need me." He told her.
He had always told her that, and it would always be true as long as he could possibly help it. He finished his tea, then left to take a warm shower. It surprised him when she joined him a while latter. She entered the room fully naked, but she didn't stroke him or invade his folds with her little prodding fingers. Instead she curled up against him and nuzzled his chest, careful to avoid his chest spur. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, comforted her under the soothing heat of the water and steam. If there were tears they were lost in the rivets that ran over her face. He stroked her wet hair, fascinated by it's change in color and texture when it was wet. He purred softly to her. He knew she liked that. It helped her sleep on the nights that she had nightmares. Someone who'd been through what she had was bound to have them now and again. Fighting off and hiding from Reapers over the last couple years didn't help. He was surprised to learn from Chakwas' medical records that he hacked into that the night mares had not occurred until after Nihlus' death. 'The straw that broke the camels back', so to speak. The thought prompted him to hold her a little tighter. Her heart at it's core belonged to another man. He was being selfish to think that he could change that. She would always be his best friend, and he would always be hers.
At the start of this they had simply been friends that had sex now and then. He let it go to far. He let himself develop feeling for her that were more than they should have been and his confession had coaxed her into returning them. Now Nihlus was back and his mistake was causing her pain. He would have to let her go, but he wouldn't release her right away. He wasn't ready to do that just yet. He would keep her for a little while longer. Just a few days, maybe a week, but then he would have to do what was right by her. She would never ask it. He couldn't guess what ran through her mind. But what was in her heart he could see in her eyes when she looked at the white painted face of the outsider. She and Nihlus were meant for each other. He could 'deal with that' or he couldn't. It was a choice that he must. He nuzzled her as he held her in his arms under the water, purring to her and wishing he'd never let it go so his eyes and held her.